Pharmacy Daily | Keep emergency measures: Qld Inquiry

TEMPORARY emergency dispensing and digital image prescribing measures introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic should be made permanent, a Queenland State Parliamentary Committee believes.

Issuing its Inquiry into the Queensland Government's health response to COVID-19: Interim Report, the Health, Communities, Disability Services and Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Committee hailed the "important contribution that community pharmacies make to the state's health system in helping to protect the health of Queenslanders".

The committee noted that the emergency measures had provided a convenient and effective strategy for managing the supply of medicines during the pandemic.

"These special arrangements have been complementary to telehealth services and should continue, like telehealth, on a permanent basis after the COVID-19 pandemic," the committee said.

The Inquiry issued six recommendations, including urging Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, to seek "support through the National Cabinet for the Australian Government to make permanent the temporary changes to prescribing contained in the Australian Government's National Health (COVID-19 Supply of Pharmaceutical Benefits) Special Arrangement 2020 to allow emergency dispensing arrangements and dispensing based on digital images of prescriptions".

In its interim report the committee also acknowledged the Queensland Government's decision to grant special authority to pharmacists and other healthcare workers to administer a COVID-19 vaccine if and when one becomes available.

"The committee supports the Queensland Government's leveraging of the existing vaccine network and encourages the continued development of its distribution plans as COVID-19 vaccine research continues," the report said.

The interim report noted the State's controversial pharmacy-based COVID-19 testing trial, saying it "looks forward to considering the results", which has divided opinion within the profession.